Chapter 1
[Note: all ages are Korean ages, which can either be one or two years more than the international ages, depending on someone's birthday.
Ji-yeon is 17 ('97) in international age and Soon-young 19 ('96)]

Failed. Again.

After coming home, Ji-yeon had immediately gone to her room and didn't leave it since then.

I should have known better. I shouldn't have even tried. Not trying is better than embarrassing yourself.

Ji-yeon regretted thinking that she had actually had a chance to pass the audition. She regretted working so hard the past few months. As a go-sam, a student in the third and final year of high school, she had been really busy. The schooldays were long and exhausting. She knew that well enough, but still wanted to try. She still wanted to go to this audition.

For more than 10 years, it had been her dream to dance in front of a large amount of people and to be able to move her audience through her dance. The 19-year-old girl thought it was amazing that people could show strong emotions through a dance, instead of just through words or direct actions. This was what she really wanted her dance to show: emotion.

She loved dancing, she loved everything about it, from the big movements to the small, detailed ones. From the abundant choice of dance styles to the subtle emotions that could be conveyed through her dance. She loved it, but...

"Ji-yeon, are you okay?" Mrs. Park asked from the living room. Her question interrupted her daughter's thoughts. "You know that our friends will come visit us today, right?"

A soft "yeah", coming from Ji-yeon's room, was heard.

Park Eun-hye knew her daughter well enough to know that it was better to leave her alone during a moment like this. But she couldn't help feeling worried about her little girl. Ji-yeon was afraid of failing, which was why she didn't want to try something that could embarrass herself. After many years of dancing, her teenage daughter had finally found something she just wanted to try.

If Ji-yeon had the confidence to show her parents her dance skills, Eun-hye would have known that her daughter was an amazing dancer. The girl had told her mother that she thought it should be fine if the audition was in a big place, like a theater, so that she wouldn't be able to see the judges' faces very well.

But ever since her daughter came home today, she hadn't left her room and the guests would arrive soon. Her university friend was going to come over with her husband and son. It had been such a long time since the last time they had seen each other. Eun-hye could remember that their kids, who were 9 and 10 at the time, played with each other the entire week that their families went on a holiday together.

"Good old days." Park Eun-hye said to herself while looking at the clock. "I should prepare something to eat."


 

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